Secrets of Cavendon (Cavendon Hall #4) by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Summary (from the publisher): From #1 New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford, comes a striking, breathtaking saga featuring the aristocratic Inghams and the Swann family, who have loyally served them for generations. It’s the summer of 1949, and things have run smoothly at Cavendon Hall for years, with very few quarrels, dramas, or upsets between the two families. But since the end of World War II, changes have arrived at Cavendon. A new generation is at the helm, and also at the forefront of new scandal and intrigue. With romance, betrayal, heartbreak, and possible murder threatening to tear them apart, the Inghams and Swanns will have to find a way to come together and protect each other in the face of threats they never could have predicted. Told with Bradford’s inimitable deftness of prose and a beloved cast of characters, Secrets of Cavendon is a captivating novel that will draw readers in and grip them until the very last page.
Review: This is the fourth and final book in the Cavendon Hall series that covers the intrigues of the aristocratic Ingham family and the Swanns that have served them for generations. This novel opens in the summer of 1949. Things at Cavendon have changed since the end of World War II. A new generation has taken the reins and with it comes romance, heartbreak, and intrigue.
For readers who have enjoyed the earlier installments in this series, this is a great way to round out the series and learn more about the fates and lives of the Ingham and Swann families. I did appreciate, for example, getting to see the final years of Daphne, who was a major character in the first book. It was also interesting to see Cavendon Hall change with the times and how the family solved the problem of how to support such a grand estate as times changed.
However, the writing in this is just poor. The dialogue is particularly stilted in nature and the author awkwardly shoehorns information the reader needs into the dialogue rather than more naturally including it in the story. I also felt like the plot felt particularly thin in this one, especially compared to the great crisis of Daphne's storyline in book one. This felt plodding and forced, and not like the author's heart was really in it or that she particularly had more to share, but just felt like she ought to carry on with the story. I'm glad I finished this series and was gratified to see how the characters' stories ended up, but this was not a stellar or particularly memorable read.
Stars: 2.5
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